


Alien World

by Oft



Category: Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-02-28
Updated: 2012-02-28
Packaged: 2017-10-31 20:50:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/348239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oft/pseuds/Oft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a gridbug attack on the ISO city, Jalen finds that his help is needed elsewhere, and from an unexpected ally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alien World

Jalen had barely moved in time; the fellow ISO he had pulled away to the side almost became a jumble of voxels mixed with the crashing edifice. Others were scrambling in a dozen directions- some running for open areas, some dodging debris as crumbling structures and gridbugs caught in the crash rained down, others were fighting off the invaders. A swarm of green bedecked with stabbing legs and spikes flowed across the building like a wave, and ISOS and basics alike were running. Jalen pushed the programs closest to him away as he rolled out of the path of another block of code crashing to the ground. 

The noise was deafening as he was pelted with bits of building and program.

A hand dragged him to his feet and he clung on, regaining his balance and the program that came to his aid ran with him, corralling others ahead towards the open air. It took a moment for tha ISO to registeer that words were being aimed at him, and he turned his head to look at his savior. He recognized the black guard as one of Tron's team, his disk out, ready to eradicate any more of the invading bugs.

". . .are you sure you're ok?" The sound glitched into full volume by microns, but Jalen nodded. "Get your people away while we take care of this!" and the spry program turned and ran off behind Jalen. Only then did Jalen see the scale of the damage. 

The entire right side of the arch of the building was gone, the soft white disrupted with trails of green specks which only served to make the gap larger by the moment. Bits of building that lost its mooring rained down in little fluttering pixels. A noise erupted from Jalen he couldn't identify, but he felt something grip his chest very akin to loss. Hope rattled inside him, and he wished fearfully that none of those white pixels were ISOs caught in the onslaught.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few microcycles later, and the only trace that the incursion was even in the sector is the gaping sections missing from the building. Already the guide frames for reconstruction surrounded it, and jagged edges were filling in voxel by voxel. Jalen's dark eyes scanned it from the level of the building opposite from the area. The damage was even worse closer up than how it appeared from the ground level, and it was horrifying from that vantage.

Smaller buildings that sprung up around the main one showed little damage, and even now they resembled small strings of fractals rising up in circles around the base. He eyed the moving dots that were programs travelling between each node, then let his eyes ride to the horizon, watching the recognizers doing a similar dance between Arija and Tron City off in the distance.

Footsteps, soft and measured, came up behind him, and an arm gently snaked around his waist. Soft tinkling resounded behind his head as he turned to Radia's somber face, framed by her elaborate headdress.

"We will rebuild, Jalen. I don't sense any maliciousness about this, if that's your worry." Jalen merely turned to embrace her, and held her for long moments.

"I know. This could have been averted, though. We'll shore up the peremeter defenses, extend the alarm radius. . . '

"Tron's here. He wished to speak to you alone. It can't be about this, or he would have conversed with me." Jalen pulled back. "What is it?" Radia expressed concern now, her arms sliding away.

"I don't know. Where is he?"

"Meditating in the arbor landing. He says there was no hurry."

"No, I should tend to it now.' His hand gave her slim arm a brief squeeze, then slid away. He barely refrained from leaving at a run, a thousand thoughts processing about why Tron would come here alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tron sat balanced on the ledge of the arbor, legs crossed, hands in lap, looking out over the grid. He was a swirl of processes right now; playing over what had happened with the grid bugs, referencing the recent unstable centers of code that have been appearing, cataloguing which of his team is to focus on what order, but mostly, remembering.

A wider landscape. A cerulean horizon scattered with waves of colored light. I/O towers beaming their communions into the sky to waiting users. Node orbs of linkage and information lit up, waiting for transfer. The to and fro of solar sailers traversing between systems over the horizon.

Her face, smiling, arms waiting to embrace him as he rushed over to her.

But not here.

There was a much different place than here. Tron was aching for it now. He always did after some new disaster. He was an alien visitor in this landscape, even as he helped shape it to Flynn and Clu's wills, and it felt like it and he were starting to fracture under the stress.

Jalen stepped to the edge of the frame out to the open rotunda. Seeing Tron perched on the ledge of the thing always unsettled him, but he knew Tron would never fall. The view here faced away from Arjia's center, out towards the black Sea; he and Radia came often. They would imagine they could hear the call of the ocean from here, but it was just that- imagination. Memory of an echo. Jalen wondered what Tron heard from here, perched over the edge.

"I came as soon as Radia. . . " Tron made no move. Odd. Usually he was turning to greet Jalen as soon as his footsteps were audible. Jalen furrowed his brow and walked into the arbor landing. ". . . told me you were here." His steps brought him within a few feet of Tron before he halted, yet the program still did not move. "Is there an issue, Tron?"

The program's head finally moved, turning just a little, accompanied by a barely audible 'no'. Jalen took that as a sign to move to the railing, eyeing Tron, quietly waiting for him to initiate the conversation. Long moments passed as they both looked to the horizon, studying the sea in the distance, listening to the faint echoes of sound from below, drifting up like smoke from the streets. The location had always been a good location for meditation as the ISOs preferred it.

"I saw an ISO in the excitement today that . . . maybe I should explain some things first before you understand what I want to ask you." Today was definitely strange. Jalen could not think of a time that Tron went to ANYONE for questions that was not directly security related. And if it were just security related, he would have said outright to Radia.

Some time later, Jalen was still processing that not only was Tron the oldest basic in the system, but that he was older than the system. He could not wrap his processes around the concept. To hear of another system that lived the way the ISOs did was a startling revelation. That Flynn was only one of thousands of other users/creators, but the only one that ever came into a program's world. Jalen felt suddenly very, very small.

Tron gave him a little time to absorb it before adding to the onslaught of information. Another several microcycles were spent in silence, only Jalen sat with his back against the boundry wall beneath the railing. Tron looked out to the sea once more, imagining the lights of the old world dancing in the distant waves.

"Are you done processing?" Tron's voice was low and soft, but it shook Jalen back to attention.

"I suppose I am." Jalen faced Tron, rising to his feet. The security program still kept his cross-legged pose, firmly seated on the edge. 

"I accept that I am a copy- the original me still exists on the other system, with her. My other, my counterpart. She didn't let Flynn copy her over. So I have been here all this time without her. And without her, without my User, I feel empty.' He finally turned to face Jalen, the sightest bit of expression unlike anything Jalen had ever seen Tron wear, so like the feeling he felt within earlier, the loss. He finally understood.

"You saw her today, among the ISOs, didn't you?"

"I'd like to think it was her, but I know better. But I would like to know who it was, and I hope you'd help me."

Jalen couldn't stop himself. He smiled at Tron.

"THAT . . . that, I can do, my friend." And he felt for the first time since the incursion, a sense of relief that he COULD do something to help.


End file.
